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Wave of Opposition Hits Hydroelectric Dams |
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By Diego Cevallos*
Local
residents are trying in several Latin American countries -- from
the Papagayo River in Mexico to the Baker River in southern Chile
-- to stop major hydroelectric projects.
MEXICO CITY - A wave of opposition is rising
in Latin America against the construction of hydroelectric dams.
In Guatemala, activists and residents recently blocked a multi-million-dollar
project, while in Brazil, El Salvador, Chile, Honduras and Mexico,
the fuse of conflict has been lit.
Across the region there are more than a thousand dams measuring
15 meters tall or more, generating 10 percent of the electricity
consumed. Governments, backed by transnational corporations, plan
to build more in order to rely less on increasingly costly petroleum,
which for now is the main source of energy.
The hydroenergy debate is intense. Although it is valued as a clean
and renewable source of electricity that also permits regulation
of water use, it is also criticized for its serious social and environmental
impacts, arising from the displacement of people and habitat for
the creation of reservoirs.
A referendum in Guatemala this month halted construction of three
hydroelectric facilities in the Río Hondo community, located on
a nature reserve in the country's east. Promoted by the government
and by local, Italian and Canadian companies, the project costs
were estimated at 100 million dollars.
Guatemala's Constitution Court validated the referendum results
on Apr. 4. Voters rejected the hydroelectric project that would
flood 6,000 hectares and threaten the livelihood of 20,000 people.
In the wake of the court's resolution, the companies have been forced
to reformulate their project with new environmental and socioeconomic
studies, and will have to submit it once again to a popular referendum.
"The Court's decision renews the citizenry's faith in the institutions,
and shows that there are still decent people in this country," Magali
Rey, director of the environmental group Madre Selva, told Tierramérica.
In Mexico, the Vicente Fox government has been trying unsuccessfully
for two years to finalize the Parota project, a giant dam costing
850 million dollars in the southern state of Guerrero. It would
displace some 25,000 people, according to the impoverished peasant
farmers in the area, who have maintained roadblocks on the access
routes to their community to prevent progress on construction.
The non-governmental Latin American Water Tribunal resolved in March
that the Mexican project on the heavy flowing Papagayo River "should
be suspended, given that it does not show benefits for the local
population, nor does it contribute to regional development or protection
of the environment and natural resources."
The ruling, which is not binding, indicated that Mexican authorities,
in their zeal to see the dam finished, have engaged in deliberate
actions to divide the peasant communities.
Meanwhile, Brazil, one of the world's leaders in the number of hydroelectric
dams (around 600), is far from conflict-free when it comes to this
matter.
Environmentalists and other activists question the intentions of
the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva government in starting operation of
two hydroelectric plants on the Madeira River, one of the main tributaries
of the Amazon River.
President Lula says the plans take into strict consideration any
related environmental or social problems. But there are about 100
non-governmental organizations, united in the Rio Madeira Vivo movement,
that challenge the government's assurances and promise to fight
the dams.
"We believe that the two plants will not be built, (because) their
economic viability has not been proved," Glenn Switkes, Latin America
director for the U.S.-based International Rivers Network, told Tierramérica.
Furthermore, the reservoir of the dams would affect "an area of
great biodiversity, with 600 species of fish and more than 700 species
of birds; and the impact on fisherfolk would be enormous because
catfish, the species of greatest commercial value, migrate 4,000
kilometers from the Amazon River to the Madeira reproduce, and the
dams would impede that cycle," Switkes said.
The project would also hurt the farmers, who plant on "flatlands
that are seasonally flooded, because the dams would reduce the deposit
of nutrients in the soil," he added.
Luiz Pereira, executive secretary of the private Institute for the
Strategic Development of the Electrical Sector, said in a Tierramérica
interview that dams are preferable to polluting sources of electricity,
like thermoelectric plants, which run on fossil fuels. He said Brazil
is working to increase its energy supply because beginning in 2008
there is no guarantee it will keep up with demand.
Nevertheless, he called for "serious" consideration of the environmental
impacts, balancing the country's energy needs and the negative effects
of the dams. "We must listen to the affected populations," Pereira
said.
Until the 1970s, the construction of dams did not face major challenges,
but now even the World Bank, one of the main funders of hydroenergy,
recognizes that the quality of life of most of the displaced population
does not improve with relocation.
Each year an estimated four million people around the world have
to leave their homes because of the construction of dams.
Opposition to hydroelectric projects in Latin America has been going
on for decades, but the conflicts are increasingly bitter. The people
whose homes are threatened warn -- as they are in the Parota project
in Mexico -- that they are willing to die in order to prevent their
land from being flooded and to avoid displacement.
In Chile, another mega-project is on tenterhooks. Environmental
groups created a coalition to oppose the plan to build four hydroelectric
plants in the Patagonian region, promoted by the Spanish energy
transnational Endesa and requiring an investment of three billion
dollars.
The dams would be built beginning in 2008 on the Baker River, the
heaviest flowing river in Chile, and Pascua River, flooding 10,000
hectares and destroying marshland and habitat of endangered species,
says the coalition.
In Central America, alarms have been sounding since the announcement
of an agreement this month by the Honduran and Salvadoran governments
to build the Tigre dam on tributaries of the Lempa River, in the
river basin the two countries share.
The project would cost around 600 million dollars, generate 1,000
megawatts and create some 4,500 jobs, officials say. But it also
promises to be a source of intense social conflict.
Indigenous peoples and environmentalists have begun to speak out
against the project, as have several lawmakers, raising arguments
about sovereignty. The binational plan emerged after the two Central
American neighbors delineated their definitive border, putting an
end to old disputes.
"The project should be analyzed with utmost caution; the preliminary
information is very vague," Juan Almendares, director of the Honduran
environmental group Madre Tierra, told Tierramérica.
"Initial reports indicate that at least 82 villages will be flooded,
and I feel we are not only giving up our land, but also ceding our
sovereignty to a project that we don't know who would benefit most,"
Marvin Ponce, legislative deputy for the Honduran leftist Democratic
Unification party, told Tierramérica.
* Cevallos is an IPS correspondent. With
reporting by Mario Osava in Brazil, Thelma Mejía in Honduras and
Jorge Grochembake in Guatemala.
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